Loki Entertainment
(archived) }} Loki Entertainment Software, Inc. was a video game developer based in Tustin, California, United States, that ported several video games from Microsoft Windows to Linux. It took its name from the Norse deity Loki.Loki Entertainment Software -- When's the IPO? Linux Today, April 12, 1999 Although successful in its goal of bringing games to the Linux platform, the company eventually closed due to financial troubles, with it declaring Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection in August 2001,Founder, Creditors Differ as to Loki's Future Course Linux Today, August 17, 2001Linux game publisher runs out of funds Geek.com (August 14, 2001) and finally being disbanded in January 2002.Loki's Draeker: If I had to do it over, I'd create Linux native games NewsForge, January 24, 2002http://www.icculus.org/news/news.php?id=209 History Loki Software was founded on November 9, 1998 by Scott Draeker, a former lawyer who became interested in porting games to Linux after being introduced to the system through his work as a software licensing attorney. By December of that year Loki had gained the rights to produce a port of Activision's then upcoming strategy game Civilization: Call to Power for Linux.Interview: Scott Draeker and Sam Latinga, Loki Entertainment Linux Journal, August 1, 1999 This was to become Loki's first actual product, with the game hitting stores in May 1999.Civilization: Call to Power for Linux Ships Linux Today, May 7, 1999 From there they gained contracts to port many other titles, such as Myth II: Soulblighter, Railroad Tycoon II, and Eric's Ultimate Solitaire.Loki releases three more games for Linux IDG News Service, May 18, 1999 Throughout the next two years up until its eventual closure the company would continue to bring more games to Linux.Loki Retrospective LinuxGames, August 13, 2001 Legacy Loki Software, although a commercial failure, is credited with the birth of the modern Linux game industry. Loki developed several free software tools, such as the Loki installer (also known as Loki Setup), and supported the development of the Simple DirectMedia Layer. They also started the OpenAL audio library project (now being run by Creative Technology and Apple Inc.) and with id Software wrote GtkRadiant. These are still often credited as being the cornerstones of Linux game development.Does Ragnarok for Loki Spell Doom for Linux Games?, IT World, February 28, 2002 (Article by Eric Foster-Johnson) They also worked on and extended several already developed tools, such as GCC and GDB.An Interview with Loki Games' Scott Draeker O'Reilly Media, March 3, 2000 (Article by J. S. Kelly) The book Programming Linux Games written in the early 2000s by Loki intern John R. Hall explains the major APIs Loki used to produce Linux games. Loki also offered a start to many figures still in the Linux and gaming industries. Ryan C. Gordon (also known as icculus), a former employee of Loki, has been responsible for the Linux and Mac OS X ports of many commercial games after the demise of the company. Mike Phillips would help start Linux Game Publishing, which was itself founded in response to Loki's closure.Interview with LGP's Mike Phillips LinuxHardware.org, June 16, 2003 Nicholas Vining would go on to do some porting work and is currently the lead programmer at Gaslamp Games, which would later release their game Dungeons of Dredmor for Linux.Classic Roguelike : Dungeons of Dredmor Is Coming To GNU/Linux Soon Linux Gaming News, July 19, 2010Coming Soon: Dungeons of Dredmor LinuxGames, October 24, 2010 Sam Lantinga would also later join Blizzard Entertainment and found Galaxy Gameworks to commercially support the Simple DirectMedia Layer; he would later also join Valve Corporation's Linux team.Valve Picks Up Another All-Star Linux Developer Phoronix, July 14, 2012 Although many Loki ports are unsupported since Loki's closure, Linux Game Publishing managed to pick up the rights to MindRover and offer a supported and updated version of the game's Linux port. id Software picked up the support for the Linux release of Quake III Arena,Quake 3 Arena takes Linux by force LinuxWorld, December 3, 2001 hiring Timothee Besset to maintain it; he would later also be responsible for porting some of id's later products to Linux.Interview with id Software's Timothee Besset LinuxGames, August 22, 2004 Running With Scissors, to celebrate the release of the movie Postal in 2007 published a multiplayer only version of Postal 2, without the single player campaign.[http://linux.softpedia.com/get/GAMES-ENTERTAINMENT/FPS/Postal-2-Share-the-Pain-10665.shtml Postal 2: Share the Pain DEMO is a FPS game for Linux retrieved from http linux.softpedia.com June 13th, 2008]. In 2004 the source header files for Rune were released freely by Human Head Studios. But so far no one has updated the Linux version of Rune, though the company stated that a game sequel is in the making, and delayed the development of Prey 2.[http://www.shacknews.com/article/73417/source-human-head-hasnt-worked-on-prey-2-since-november Source: Human Head hasn't worked on Prey 2 since November] retrieved from shacknews.com (04-19-2012) Software contractor Frank C. Earl claimed in 2010 to hold the porting rights for the entire Myth series and says he will port it to Linux.Post by Frank "Svartalf" Earl Kevin Bentley worked in 2009 on a Descent 3 patch for Linux, (2009) which was re-released in 2014 on Steam by Rebecca Heineman, who got blessed source code access.OldeSkuul on facebook.com (2014) In October 16, 2011, Project Magma released a new version of Myth 2 for Linux.Myth 2 for Linux Redux on linuxgames.comMyth II v1.7.2 for Linux Games published In addition to the published titles, there is also an unfinished port of Deus Ex. The later update of Deus Ex for Microsoft Windows features the OpenGL driver for the Unreal engine from Loki Software's Linux port. This makes the title more compatible with Wine. See also *Linux Game Publishing *Ryan C. Gordon References External links *Official website *Icculus.org Ryan Gordon's site, hosting many Loki projects as well as other Linux gaming resources *Activision and Loki Partner to Bring Games to Linux Linux PR, October 11, 1999 *Linux.com - Loki: In The Trenches (Interview with Loki Software Staff) Category:Companies disestablished in 2002 Category:Defunct video game companies Category:Linux companies Category:Linux game porters Category:Video game companies established in 1998 Category:Video game companies of the United States